2020

The video Bodyfraction parallels microscopic images of fragments of the artist’s body (tooth enamel, skin, nails, hair etc.) with recordings of drawings and light-sensitive objects created on their basis. Drawings were digitally processed towards simulating the chemical process called ‘reaction diffusion’ which models (mathematically or visually) the behaviour of two chemicals in a solution as they mix. Such animated drawings form a fractal-like patterns and together with modified recordings of reflective light-works surfaces they create an entry into imaginary hidden topography (macro, micro or nano dimensions) in motion.

2019-2020

This series of relief light-sensitive works was conceived on the basis of computer-modified microscopic images of particles of the artist’s body by inverse digital transformation (IFFT), with the help of computer programmes used in microscopy. This is why the fragments of micro structures, despite the seeming naturalism indicated by the titles of particular works, are not the magnification of ‘the natural’, but algorithmically coded images, an artificial product of the ‘mechanical’, digital. Transparent or reflecting surfaces are dynamized by light effects and the fluctuating, subjective perception of the observer in time and space.

2020

acryl and marker on paper
series (12)
dim: 66 x 90 cm (each)

Drawings in colour that trace microscopic motifs of bodily particles shift conceptually away from the real motif towards the abstract one on two levels: colour is forced artificially upon the achromatic micro recording (the RGB colour model), while the procedure of colour layering brings in the illusion of motion and depth, i.e. optic qualities absent in the original microscopic referent.

2020

acryl, pastel on paper
variable dimensions.

Graphical images on paper combine structures that look like microscopic imagery and the morphology of bodily particles. The bodily tissue is mediated in a variety of observation ratios: from stylised visible body parts (abstracted forms of hair, eyelashes and skin structures) to microscopic images of elementary bodily particles. This type of technological layering explores the relationship between the visible (physical) and the representational (abstract, conceptual).

2019

The music captured artist’s imaginations of coldness and isolation as well as visions of shiny spectacles produced by sharpened light projected into immersive underwater depthness. Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca), one of Arctic animals threatened by extinction caused by environmental changes, is a metaphorical expression of icy beauty and power grounded in an anxious awareness of primal existential solitude and transience.

2018

Vacuum formed polyester
Series of 4 works; diim (each): 80 x 80 cm

Four wall reliefs are based on the same microscopic image of carbon substance, which is being transformed by the use of special computer programs used in microscopy. The proceeding of image projection in the realm of inverse (multidimensional space) and filtered back into two or three dimensional form by filters’ data extraction produces four variations of the same.
Such alteration of the same motif expresses the idea that the polymorphic nature (variabilty) of the visibile is produced only by subjective perception filters that are altering rather invisible same complex reality.

2017

Video created for the track Cast to the Bottom from the album The Great Crater by Scanner (Glacial Movements, 2017). Composed of landscape 3d digital simulation and digitally processed video recordings, the video shows a virtual journey through an imaginary underwater landscape. Landscape segments are reminiscent of Berlot's previously realized works of art - topography of magnetic fluids and light sculptures. The dreamlike quality of video comes from the uncertainty of recognizing temporal and spatial coordinates, hovering camera recordings in motion and the dematerialized effects of light.

2017

The round-shaped form in the process of constant transformation is based on the idea of simulating life at the molecular level. The structure, which periodically resembles a virus structure, complex proteins or carbon fullerenes, is being decomposed, transformed and re-shaped in a string of regulatory processes. The fusion of elements according to the rule of shape and anti-shape (the key–lock principle), chain formation, deformation with multiplied symmetry or a simulation of the Brownian motion create a flexible abstract form, which in a state of constant metamorphosis tends to seek stability. The simulation of processes at micro- and nano-scales reveals the surprising fact that many substances at the molecular level, as they strive for stability, flexibility and indeed their very existence are formed and arranged according to some intelligent order, even though they are not actually alive.

2017

video 4,24'
sound: Scanner - Robin Rimbaud

The video Inverse space works on two levels of microscopic observation: the first line of recordings shows the transformation of a non-living (inorganic) substance from one physical state to another – namely, the process of crystallization, which involves the transformation of an ionic liquid state into a solid matter triggered for the purpose of maintaining a balanced system. The recording of the formation of various crystal types is interrupted by a set of static images of geometrically-shaped concentric patterns or grids, which function to periodically interrupt the visual field. These images illustrate the technological structure of the view and simultaneously reveal another level of microscopic visualization. The compositions consisting of points of light on a dark background, which are reminiscent of stellar constellations or similar, are the result of electronic diffraction on crystals which allows the visualization of crystals in inverse space.
The system of microscopic lenses reveals the inverse (reciprocal) multidimensional space, which is mathematically expressed in complex numbers as the ratio between the real and imaginary values. Although the crystal images appear to be simplified, the reciprocal space in fact contains far more information than the physical three-dimensional reality that we typically inhabit.
At the same time, microscopic observation of magical landscapes featuring the birth of crystals reveals the sublime beauty of multidimensional space, which extends beyond the mere visual to the limits of the intelligible.

2017

diptych: laser-cut and digital print on plexiglass,
dim: 200 x 135 cm

The hanging objects present microscopic images of a carbon substance and its digital mapping (transcription) into a reciprocal space. Perforation of the transparent carrier-surface and the accompanying shadow cause the object to become dematerialized and the transition of the material into an immaterial state in space.

2017

The crystal structures are microscopically analyzed using computer programs, which allow the simulation of mapped image projections into the inverse (reciprocal) space. The manipulation or reduction of data using filters in the domain of inverse space – which is considerably more complex than real space – and the subsequent projection of the motif (based on the partial information) back into the real space generates a transformed version (copy) of the original image. As a result of this mapping the motif is still recognizable; however, the original form has been changed.

Ground reliefs are based on and developed through such mappings and modifications of the image, which was created during the process of microscopic observation of the carbon substances (see the work Reciprocity). The three-dimensional imprints of images, which were created by diffraction in the inverse space (the filters used in this procedure are illustrated by the graphics on the wall), express the similarity embodied in diversity (dissimilar similarity) and from this perspective represent polymorphic imprints of this particular sameness.

The procedure involved in digital mapping and spatial projections, which shape the transformations of the same motif, metaphorically address questions of perception and the selective operations of the psychological structures (perception filters) that define them. These serve to express the idea that our reality is a complex imprint of reciprocal (multidimensional) space, while the polymorphic shape of the visible is created out of the subjective nature and conditions of perception.

2016

The kinetic diorama submerged within and enhanced by the audio environment observed through an opening in the surface of a crystal-shaped object imitates the structural makeup of carbon nanotubes visible through a microscope. A hub of tubes creates a nano-topographic simulation, whose technical attributes reveal another specific characteristic uncovered within the domain of light technology: carbon nanotubes, which represent a compelling potential, since they allow, indeed facilitate the transformation of electrical energy into light with virtually no heat loss.

A miniature silver landscape in motion that can be viewed through the observation perforation in the surface of a cristal-like object is based on the photographs of magnetic fluids that served as the basis for digital model development and the resulting 3D printed reliefs. In the act of viewing the framed panorama in the static position, the viewer loses a sense of scale; the tiny spiked structures of the kinetic surface take on the appearance of the surface topography of some distant planet. Dematerialized by its own reflections, the artificial landscape blurs the distinction between the real and the virtual. Simulacra of the natural metaphorically mediate the idea of nature as a projection, one that mirrors our own projections and perceptions.

2014

The recording of dynamic forms of magnetic fluids that are produced by invisible magnetic fields direct the experience of the material in relation to the immaterial. The ferrofluid structures, which are in reality only a few centimeters in height, being transposed into a digital environment operate as macro-scale phenomena that simulate characteristics of the organic, the animate. Fluid topography acts to simulate a natural living organism or process, which by revealing the sphere of unseen magnetic physical attractions and energies works to (re)direct the viewer towards more subtle, usually imperceptible aspects of reality.

2014

Photosensitive images are based on microscopic images of the nanoparticles of a magnetic fluid's crystallized structure. Digitally processed and laser-treated images of organic patterns reveal the invisible arrangements at nano-scale dimensions. At the same time the material reproductions on the glass create dematerialized sensory bodies whose projections transform our perception of space. The installation implies a moving viewer, as the surface textures vary with the viewing angle.

2012

The repeated kaleidoscopic video was created on the basis of X-ray image of a spine and projected back over the original radiological image printed on an aluminum support. Such projection creates layering, a kind of of spatial superposition into repetitive hypnotic pattern.

2012

video projection, print on plexiglass
dim: 100 x 138 cm (x 2)

The kaleidoscopic video is based on radiological recordings of the author's brain. The recording of neural connections (nerve tracts) shown by tractography (diffusion MRI) is computer-mirrored and projected onto two parallel plexiglass plates, on which an abstracted form of tractogram image is printed. Spatial installation based on video projection produces a volumetric but intangible light body in motion.

2012

Anatomical Transfigurations explores the effects of medical visualizations and mediation of the internal body upon the altered perception and valuation of the body today. In a broader perspective it questions the dichotomy between physical and mental, eternal and transitory, thus exploring and expanding the traditional theme of vanitas. The transfiguration of anatomical fragments as recorded by conventional x-ray techniques into new visual representations effects a re-contextualization of scientific medical imagery into the field of art.

2012

Video Vanitas – Self-portrait presents a hypnotic image of the continuous dissolution of the author's face, skull and brain. The repetitive liquefying interplay between the exterior and the technologically-visualized exterior posits the question of visible and invisible, physical and mental. However, the image of the skull is not only a metaphor for the transience of life and the inevitability of death; in relation to the sound of rhythmic respiration it evokes death as a faithful companion of life and its faithful shadow, and in turn illuminates the meaning and value of life, heightening the consciousness of human existence.

2012

This series of photographs was produced using a particular form of camera obscura created by the artist's mouth. Technically the images are based on the use of a small piece of photosensitive paper installed in the mouth with the aperture located between the lips: the projection of light 'draws' an outline of the body observed and the exterior body is displaced in its own interior. However, the shape of the body, resulting in such an analogous process as an imprint of light, is not the only element determining the image; it occurs via a mixture of other types of imprints produced by the body itself - fingers, saliva, tongue, teeth, etc. The resulting 'visceral' self-portrait is permeated by corporeality and does not singularly 'represent' the bodily.

2012

mirror - glass (dim: 120 x 80 cm), light projection and reflection

The light work Fractal is part of a series of works dealing with the idea of the 'transparent body'. Formally the work is based on a radiological image of the brain, the use of light sensitive materials and the integration of non-material phenomena such as light projections and reflections. The diffracted image shows the branching of blood vessels and also, because of the vertical installment, resembles the structure of the pulmonary bronchi. The fractal structure of the corporal organ maps the invisible geometry of the body, while the light dematerializing the image suggests the impermanent and fragile essence of the physical, whether organic or artificial.

Spiral Floating, 2010

The installations Kaleidoscopic Gaze and Spiral Floating are based on digitally- processed radiological images of my brain activity while contemplating Duchamp's Anemic Cinema, which was conceived as an optic dispositive inducing a four-dimensional spatial-temporal perceptive experience in the viewer (by alternating the concave and convex effects of spiral swirling). The kaleidoscopic pattern of the video aims to similarly expand the viewer's perception and consciousness; the repetitive, hypnotic pattern of light projected onto the image reflected by a mirror produces a layering of fractally-fragmented reflections, that is, a virtual multi-dimensional space in motion.

2010

The video installation Butterfly uses radiological images of the author's brain responding to different colors. The image of a butterfly changing colors is formed by a light reflection of a video that is being projected onto a horizontal image on a mirror. It alludes to the concept of the "butterfly effect", which in chaos theory posits that slight, even infinitesimally small variations in the initial conditions of a dynamic system may produce extreme and unpredictable results in other space and time coordinates: that a butterfly flapping its wings could set off a hurricane on the other side of the planet. The shape on the mirror is a graphically processed image of my brain; the butterfly reflection is a metaphor for the power of our "invisible" thoughts, our emotions, our so-called mental worlds, conscious or unconscious, that keep changing the physical reality surrounding us. Butterfly deals with the interconnectedness of the visible and the invisible and questions the causal relations between the perceptible and the intelligible.

2008

2007

video 4,23'
sound: Damir Šimunović

The video work Pulsation presents pulsating light phenomena, the bodily and the technologically generated hybrid as a luminous apparition composed by layering reflected light, video projections of radiological scans of the artist’s brain and related manipulated recorded video images.

2007

'Uršula Berlot’s work develops out of the evanescence of perception, predominantly delving into the realm of optics. Reflections and shadows produce enchanting images, which often dispel their mundane origin. In Lumina, a sheet of Plexiglas dotted with resin casts a projection, which comes alive and magnifies in scale when lit, thereby engulfing whatever fills in its way. Devoid of texture, Berlot’s are quintessential impressions that confound the boundary between perception and illusion: they exist only as waves of different frequency-lengths bouncing off surfaces and then hitting the retina. Yet they imbue the spectator with emotions provoked by chiaroscuro - semantically evocative of life extremes - and by patterns reminiscent of the natural effects produced by liquids and gases when condensing or evaporating, and of fractals. The designs are uniquely shaped by light and appear only in obscurity, vice versa, areas of shadow are observable only in so far as they are dark leftovers from illuminated areas, i.e. as the negatives of bright contours. Moreover, they do not seem intentional, but simply edited out from nature, and only the display is manifestly staged. The delicacy and transience of the work is pernicious; we are not sure of what we see, constantly flipping between negative and mirror projections, an effect even accentuated when the installation is kinetic (obtained with a video projector or a rotating motor). Focussing on ethereal images projects the viewer into hidden dimensions, hinting at disclosures of higher discernment.'
- Alessandra Pace, SCI'ART, 2009 (excerpt)

2006

A transparent picture is suspended on a rotating engine installed on the ceiling and is illuminated by two halogen projectors. It slowly rotates and projects moving, crystal-like light rays and veiled reflections. The fractal form on the plate is a computer-modified image of an X-ray scan of the author's brain. The reproduction is two-sided, made of two types of material – one that reflects like a mirror, and another that enlarges like a magnifying lens, thus creating a condensation of light into a crystalline projection. The kinetic, multilayered spatial structure creates a virtual picture of membranous veils of light, which in the dissolving borders between the exterior and the interior, the projected and the reflected, metaphorically speaks of transitoriness, non-determination and the multidimensional spatial/time essence of every system, the sensible (natural or artificial) as well as the intelligible.

2006

Four projectors illuminate a bent piece of plexiglass positioned horizontally on the floor that reflects a multi-layered image: an organic-like structure on the wall of a triangle-shaped space. The light is manipulated with an electronic modulator, which regulates the intensity and speed of the projection, thus giving the impression of a slow, wave-like movement of a three-dimensional porous structure. The project deals with the visualization of pulsating pre-cerebral states, mental-sensory patterns and mental energies. Cerebral Landscapes – Reflection can also be understood as an artistic metaphor of dichotomy, implied by the dual meaning of the word reflection, since it can denote the optic phenomenon of light reflection or a mental activity – a concentrated process of thinking.

2006

digital video projectionvariable dimensions

This kaleidoscopic rhythmic structure of a recurring pattern is not a computer-generated picture, but a video recording taken on a digital camera and a kaleidoscopic instrument. The infinite recurrence of one and the same element in micro- and macro-measures within the fragmental but also well-ordered kaleidoscopic structure gives the impression of a hypnotic and meditative state. The projection of simulated vitriol into an architectural window niche reminds one of the ways light is used in sacral architecture, and at the same time challenges our perception of differentiation between the real and the illusory.

2006

reflective foil, plexiglassdim: 2,5 x 0,5 m; A fractal-like crystalline shape made of reflective foil on plexiglass creates a diffraction of light and forms an abstract color image of the light spectrum – a rainbow on the wall perpendicular to it. The composition is a computer-aided image showing an isolated brain vessel, which as part of the human blood system presents a natural fractal form.

2006

video loop, magnetic resonance imagingsound: Damir Šimunović

The image of the brain created using medical imaging technology presents primary insight into the interior of the human skull. The movement of fluid forms is both concrete and abstract. The circular framing and the dynamics of the organic pattern create a hypnotic picture, which can be experienced as a visual equivalent to the flow of as yet articulated, abstract states of thought, unconnected meanings, fragments of memory, feelings and more.

2006

'Working with nature, Uršula Berlot sets out to discover its underlying principles, subtly intangible yet overtly percpetible. Her challenging installations heighten viewers' awareness of their own experience of time and space, undermining their certainty of being able to distinguish the living from the non-living, the material from the immaterial, the natural from the artificial. Primal States is a visual metaphor of the characteristics of the feminine. Horizontality, passivity, acceptance, frankness, sweetness and tenderness are shown in the context of a deliberately formal agenda. The use of transparent materials that reflect natural light by day and by night suggests an analogy with nature, organic forms and the fundamental concept of creation.' (from the catalogue ART’FAB: L’art-La femme-L’Europe. Saint-Tropez, Paris: Terrail, 2006)

2002

'Uršula reintroduces indeterminacy, one of the key elements of the abstraction, through thorough setting up of art objects in the space and using of the light. The objects do not end with the contours of their material substance, they are "open works", extending themselves into the immaterial sphere with the interplay of the material and its shadow. In the ambiences that are being constructed a passage from physical matter to its untouchable presence is realised. Indirectly also a passage from three-dimensional to four-dimensional field occurrs, the latter being constituted by time based phenomenon of the light and the viewer’s perception process. In communicating with the art work, the viewer is an active part who puts his/her experience into an order and adapts the unknown to the known.' – Nataša Petrešin, 2002 (excerpt from the exhibtion text Reflection)

2002

plexiglass, artificial resindim: 100 X 180 cm

'As well as the light-and-shade relationships between the material and the immaterial, the resulting optical images reveal, in their metamorphoses, completely different aspects of the dimensions of space and time. The artist attempts to problematise constantly changing natural processes through endless repetitions of mobile images by means of which she creates the new technological spaces of the optical field. In the dynamics of this process she attempts to go beyond the traditional dialectical relationships between material and immaterial, light and shade, change and permanency and transitoriness and eternity. In this way she places herself beyond all borders based on dualities. With her light objects, Ursula Berlot creates an illusory space which, as well as presenting experimental visual phenomena, is capable of setting more unusual perceptional challenges for the viewer in the sense of an individual understanding of time and space.’ – Alenka Spacal, Chrystal Shade, 2003 (excerpt)

2002

bend plexiglass, reflected lightDim: 100 x 200 x 60 cm

'An object by Uršula: a monochromatic shadowy image drawn on a white screen, on the floor or on the wall, by reflected light shining though deformed and corrugated plexiglass. This shadowy image creates the impression of the third dimension and appears to be material – a shadowy perspective created by accumulation of transparencies, reflections and shadows. The ‘image’ clearly appears as a projection, as a projection process; the object demands that we pay attention to its double structure, the relationship between the basic plexiglass transparency and the non-material light reflection. (...) The transition from the silent plexiglass matter to the organic shadowy image is discrete and not linked. There is no lever between the two, only empty space without any awareness. It is the space of the subject.' – Luka Omladič, Reflection, 2002 (excerpt)

Incubator is an interactive audio-visual installation that represents a self-sustained, circularly arranged dynamic system that translates tactile signals into audio and visual events. A viewer strolling through a completely darkened space is randomly touched or bumped into drifting fans and sensors that transmit air and tactile impulses to the electronic interface. It triggers instantaneous flashes of lights that create individual projections of transparent images and sound in a way that gives a sense of the presence of phantom-like intangible entities. The title (Incubator) refers to self-referentiality and autonomy of a dynamic 'living' system, its circular organization ('autopoieses' in terms of F. Varela's definition), whose transformations are triggered by the viewer.

2002

2001

artificial resin, pigment; dim: 120 x 130 cm

I’m interested in nature as a space of physical phenomena, elementary states of light and matter. My art is a metaphorical transposition of transitional, natural phenomena (transparency and other manifestations of light, fluid, organic states of physical substance, metamorphosis of forms, transition, condensation and crystallization of matter). Therefore, a transfer, translocation and stabilization of transitional natural states and ephemeral events with stable industrial, artificial materials. These are reduced: I use dematerialized bases of plexiglass and synthetic resin, in an analogy to the primary, fluid, colorless substance of the world. The procedures are based on the natural physical and chemical processes of gravity, crystallization, coagulation. The pictures are fragile sensors of light, open, passable spaces, translucent membranes, sensitive spaces of color ascetics, realms of shadows and reflections. They function on the sensual level; they are experienced as multidimensional organisms in material and non-material extensions. – Uršula Berlot, 2001